A few years ago, I wrote an essay about the Jew holiday that starts tomorrow, Purim (I’ll drop a link tomorrow if people can’t find it). It is absolutely the best Jew holiday. No pretense to moderation, it’s party, party, party. Since (((we))) do the clock differently (not just the calendar) from you heathens, tomorrow actually starts tonight. So I’m bringing much wine up north to have my tomb raided. Two of her best friends will be at dinner, so it will be fun to see the effects of in vino veritas on the prog set.
And speaking of sets, there’s a set of birthdays today, including a guy who had the single best line on religion ever; a woman who had interesting ideas about conservation; a guy who argued that freedom is slavery; a guy who was the equal of Welles in pioneering of cinematic methods and styles; a guy whose career consisted of killing British and then whining, “Who, me? A Nazi?”; a guy who was always glad to say hello; a guy who did a bit part in a John Waters film; and the guy who first drew me in to bluegrass and Americana.
With that out of the way, let’s link.
Here in New York, we have LAWS. Clearly this one works.
I’m sure this is completely a coincidence.
It could be true, but it strikes me as dubious. On va voir.
This was my favorite Iris DeMent song, hands down. Her version with Emmylou Harris always brings a tear to my eye. But know what? This cover is legit.
Morning all.
Rainless day predicted. Maybe I can finally get some grass cut.
Good morning, Suthen!
Good morning Ma’am.
I spit out my black pill this morning. We will see how long that lasts.
Weatherman noted last night that this will be the 8th rainy Saturday out of the 12 Saturdays so far this year. Got a guy coming over to give the mower the pre-season tune-up, and I’ll need to use tomorrow if it dries up enough, or Monday.
And he postponed.
Tuning up a lawnmower should be fairly easy.
2″ -3″ due here today. Localized flooding forecasted.
I’m seeing as much snow now as I did all winter.
I have to got out today, hmph.
Yeah…woke up to see my yard already flooded. Hoping pump holds out…since I replaced it 2 years ago. As far as I can tell, the dirt I put down a week ago is still mostly in place – since the yard is already so flat….may need to put out more grass seed tomorrow though. At least we’re getting the high winds for the next 24 hours after this blows out this afternoon so hopefully a lot of it will dry and I may be able to mow by Wed.
Somehow, I have a feeling that I may need to get another dirt delivery in a few weeks – but it’s tricky since the spot that needs it the most is in the back yard – and one of the softest spots is by my gate to the back – made huge sticky mud trenches when I was moving stuff last week – and used some dirt/seed just to fill in those spots (which are currently under water)…..*sigh*
Woke up to snow on the ground.
Lousy Smarch weather.
https://img.ifunny.co/images/156db1998dfdf3e71abef0a4e8e2d425b2133569ac11fd9048300814da127fde_1.jpg
I think we’re in Third Winter here
Yup. I recall the Spring of Deception from a couple weeks ago very fondly.
Page 3. 🙂
I dont know what that is but it is not a fish fry.
Oh please.
Are there any Fed offices in DC that dont have a ‘For Sale’ sign on them?
At what point do we just start ignoring them?
When they start ignoring us.
Just to be sure, is the “single best line on religion” the paragraph quoted in the Wiki article from A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities?
And don’t say, “Probably.”
Maybe?
Perhaps?
I think it is the “I didnt need that hypothesis” line.
“Monsieur, je n’ai pas eu besoin de cette hypothèse.”
Thanks! I obviously hadn’t scrolled far enough.
How about let’s not.
You would prefer they just have ‘Moran’ carved into their foreheads? That would work I suppose.
I’m guessing that person sees “patriarchy” everywhere.
Kind of surprised adultery is legal anywhere but I’m a square so there is that.
“The funny thing about the Law of Fives is the more I look for it, the more I see it.”
Blaming the Jews…. I don’t think it would even occur to anyone – the Russians and the the Israelis both seem busy with their own issues. Then this maniac started talking into a microphone.
https://twitter.com/MyLordBebo/status/1771258941818691810
Back benchers say all kinds of stupid shit. I think we see that daily here.
Sure – but talk about terrible timing to say that to a Russian media outlet.
That is not restricted to back benchers.
The ISIS claim is weird. Obama’s old CIA front? I thought they were defunct. They don’t plan escapes or get taken alive.
Whoever this crew was, they had an escape plan. The Russians apparently have captured several of them, so they’ll know soon enough.
I dunno. I would have thought ISIS and the Russians have been beefing in Syria, and the Russians have had their issues with Islamic nutters for quite awhile. I can easily imagine ISIS having their very own grudges against Russia. Not everything is controlled by the big brains in the CIA as they stroke their white Persian cats and make the world dance to their tune.
Always has to be someone: Satan, (((them))), Bond villain, CIA, some-other-cabal. If evil isn’t personified we can’t console ourselves with who is to blame.
Dont you mean cant admit who is to blame?
It ain’t us even if it is U.S. you mean? That’s not admitting – that’s throwing it on someone else.
Swing and a miss…for me. That is what I meant. Most of the shadowy boogie man stuff is about dodging responsibility for our own sins.
You sir are a rare man.
You forgot “Trump”
Yesterday my bet was on Ukraine. I still don’t understand why ISIS would be hitting Russia now. They seem like a patsy.
The Russians crushed them in Syria when they were on the cusp of victory. They certainly have cause for a beef but it still might not be what it seems to be on the surface, then again it might.
My money is still on the Ukes. A group was reportedly arrested headed towards the Ukrainian border.
We’ll know soon enough-strange that some of them were taken alive.
If actually taken alive – the reporting is all over the place on how many casualties. Just as possible some of the usual suspects are rounded up.
Who knows? Although I would expect the Russians to blame the Ukes, regardless of their involvement or lack of it.
Knowing what he knows now, I wonder if Putin would still have ordered the invasion of Ukraine. The Russians will still very likely win, but the price has to be an order of magnitude or more than what he thought would be. Including the fact that, if his casus belli was NATO expansion, the war has been a pretty complete strategic failure.
Who knows? The Russians saw American expansionism into Ukraine as an existential threat and were prepared to pay a high price. If they either take Ukraine which they don’t want to do or just end up carving it into a rump state they’ve managed to eliminate that threat and judging by our reactions and the way NATO’s responded the threat from Russia’s point of view wasn’t overstated.
Tit for tat escalation can make the most paranoid fantasies come true. If they do case studies in diplomatic school, Ukraine would be an excellent example of that. The insidious thing about tit-for-tat escalation is that each side can easily justify its slide into total war as purely defensive.
The war in the Ukraine is about to get a lot rougher. Maybe western leaders could take a little break from trying to escalate it into WWIII?
Listen jack, if that’s the only way I can unify this country, then it’s a small price to pay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q74HdWNNT0w&t=24s
Russia’s way bigger (literally and figuratively) than the current Ukraine war. There’ve been (and are) lots and lots of Russia/Islamist conflicts, so this seems just like it may be the latest. “All politics is local” ya know.
Yeah, they were bombing ISIS and others in Syria – and have a history of islamic terrorism issues – even if they’ve kinda leashed the Chechens to do their dirty work since the gymnasium attack a while back.
Now see…it won’t last long. Thinking about the Parkland shooting. That occurred because the feds were paying police depts to lower crime rates, specifically juvenile rates if I remember correctly. The Florida county where that occurred was deliberately not arresting problem individuals to artificially lower their crime rates. Nicolas Cruz was a very serious problem individual, a real ticking time bomb, that the Sheriff’s dept had repeatedly not arrested for serious offenses.
I think the Trayvonn Martin case was caused by the same reason. Of course the gun grabbers are going to spin both incidents to justify disarming the populace.
Create a problem, promise to solve it by crushing everyone’s liberty: SOP for authoritarians.
Talk until your jaw falls off, you cant have my guns.
Jeez, why is Baltimore such a shithole?
Mosby wants to make sure the people that made the mess stay there and somehow don’t do again what they’ve already done.
I wouldn’t move there if they paid me.
Race, economics, political affiliation blah blah blah. What no one ever wants to say is that poverty and crime are self inflicted by culture.
I have to go to New Orleans in a month or so. Every time I think of that shithole I mumble under my breath “Pray for another Katrina”.
#MeToo
The Speaker can count on your vote of course. Oh, no, wait.
That’s quite a cluster. Assuming that was ’22 fiscal money it should be expiring soon and may well go unspent.
Florida is the only Red state with red flag laws. Odd.
Oklahoma is the only state with an anti-red-flag law.
Yeah, less than half the states “eligible”, not like that was targeted or anything.
Watching The 3 Body Problem on Netflix. So far, following the trilogy well. The scene in the middle of episode 5 is especially cool.
Does following the trilogy mean its a good show?
I thought the book trilogy was great, so yes.
a guy who was always glad to say hello
Happy birthday Lionel Richie!
From the special election to replace McCarthy (two Repubs advance to the run-off, so the seat doesn’t change party):
Two tier justice system indeed.
Despite being married into the tribe, we have never done anything for Purim (other than my MIL sending GF hamantaschen to the wife). I feel cheated.
I played https://squaredle.com/xp 03/23:
*20/20 words (+6 bonus words)
📖 In the top 5% by bonus words
I played https://squaredle.com 03/23:
*37/37 words (+9 bonus words)
📖 In the top 7% by bonus words
🔥 Solve streak: 181
California, ever willing to lead the charge of the stupid brigade. I don’t even have an onion on my belt, but I remember the days when Democrats actually believed in free speech.
Did they really? Or was it always just free speech for Democrats?
They believe in free speech for themselves and always have. For others, not so much with the caveat that the nonneolib liberals that are left, the Jimmy Dore types, still value it.
Well there was a time in Skokie.
Yes, and the ACLU (originally a communist front, let’s not forget) dined out on that for decades. If it was calculated rather than principled, the cred they got for that made it a huge winner.
I think the ACLU calculus was from the start “Do the causes that need free speech disrupt the dominant culture and/or sow chaos?” The answer was yes, so they supported it, being, as you say, a communist front at its inception. Supporting NAZI right to march, while being the right answer, was disruptive – I think the ACLU got the right answer for the disruptive impact, not on principle. Were there a lot of rank-and-file that had the traditional Western view of free speech absolutism? Yes, but organizationally, at the foundational level, I think the ACLU has only been for free speech as a means to an ends, not as a principle of individual liberty/bulwark against the state – that’s the origin of the 1st Amendment, not the ACLU’s position.
This.
Now the ACLU is going after whistleblowers in pediatric gender clinics.
No, I think the party was not insane then as it is now. Both parties, or wings of the uni-party if you prefer, have lost relevance with the electorate. I do have to wonder how long before another party becomes a viable alternative.
I think with populism having taken over the R’s, and RFK coming up on the left, we are seeing that right now.
I don’t know how deep the populist line runs beyond Trump. I don’t see anyone really leading that in the R’s other than him; the rest will fold back in easily enough. RFK can’t be a darling of the modern-left because he doesn’t support Big Pharma (and I still can’t wrap my head around that – how the LEFT became corporate lackeys there).
I think the Plague taught our leftists what Mussolini figured out – big corporations can be the third leg of the neo-socialist system that we used to call fascism. Plus, all that sweet, sweet corporate money . . . .
Oh sure, up at the top it makes total sense. It’s the downstream support that is harder for me to figure. Other than they’re just really good at not thinking and following whatever they’re told to do.
Populism is on the left, too (Dean supporters, Bernie bros, OWS, antifa, DSA, etc). They’re just as frustrated with the DINO and the right is with RINO.
Hmm, I don’t think of progressives ever as populists. Too much expert worship – that doesn’t go down so well with people skeptical of experts.
No, going back to FDR, etc – progressivism is 100% dependent on populism for grass roots support.
They aren’t progressives, they are Leftists
(The difference between the two is a major blind spot on the right)
But progressives always favor expert opinion over the people’s voice – which is what I think of as populism. FDR was popular, but not populist. The Kingfish was a populist.
The New Deal was explicitly populist – giving people make-work jobs funded by the taxpayer – CCC, WPA, etc – may have had “expert” input on development but the end state was a populist target.
They did, but were greatly disappointed that there was backsliding into conservatism, and so they stopped believing.
“Under SB 1228, authored by State Sen. Steve Padilla, D-Chula Vista, social media companies would be required to verify “influential” users with 25,000 to 100,000 followers through their names, telephone numbers, and email addresses. Social media companies would be required to verify “Highly influential” users with more than 100,000 followers via their government-issued identification.”
So like a tax that only starts with the rich.
Indeed, that is why I used to be one.
Funny, my great grandfathers dissertation was The Censorship of Hebrew Books, which got him a professorship at Cal, and now those days are long gone.
https://archive.org/details/censorshiphebre00poppgoog for anyone interested.
They believed in free speech the way the Soviets, that liberals here quietly rooted for, believed in free speech.
I am torn on the leftists of yesteryear being supporters of the Works and Soviets or just being anti-USA. I lean towards the latter.
Works…fuckin’ spell check. NORKS
I remember the Democrats like Scoop Jackson and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, hell, even Frank Church or Hubert Humphrey – none of whom could probably win a Democratic nomination for anything these days. Not one of them was apologist for commies.
You are correct. I remember Tip O’Neal as well. Not the best but I think he was worlds better than what scum the party has now. Now Carter…not so much. I think he is a full-on pinko.
I was thinking less of pols and more of popular culture. The whole hippie movement with its communes and free love and the music…geez. Of course Hollywood has always been infested with reds.
The real classical liberals as we think of them were few and far between.
I don’t think Carter was a pinko, just the product of a book smart man indoctrinated in a regimented government system (nuke officer) and thinking it can be extended to societal organization. Plus a dose of Christian charity obligation funneled, again, through the world of government.
Larry McDonald…
Curious.
“Verifying the identities of accounts with large followings allows us to weed out those that seek to corrupt our information stream,” said Padilla in a statement.
You got a license for that opinion??
I am not h hopeful. We just saw Trump denied opportunities to present a defense or apply for an appeal. I have no faith in them to rule per the law. It is rule by man all the way now it seems.
The judicial has become shit.
Yep, they’re just as corrupt and politicized as the other branches especially in certain states. Our so called justice system is done.
Probably stupid of me, but I’m waiting for the mass exodus of medium- and large-size businesses from New York. Letitia James shot the city and state in the foot, IMHO.
She might have gotten away with it if she had just stuck to Trump, but as soon as she moved to another target, there’s no question of who is at risk.
It takes a while to sell/move a business but it will happen.
Note all the financial firms down in Florida now. That took a few years.
And she was elected, what, five years ago? With the express intent of going around the law to take down he who cannot be named.
“corrupt our information stream”
contradict our propaganda
I love that Purim comes right after St. Pats. Two holidays for my peoples so close makes it twice as easy to ignore both.
“Most of the $640 million in new charitable donations Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife MacKenzie Scott is dishing out will go to nonprofits pushing extreme left-wing causes, including helping migrants who commit crimes and boosting male-born transgender athletes who want to compete against women.”
https://nypost.com/2024/03/23/us-news/jeff-bezos-ex-mackenzie-scott-donates-to-groups-boosting-migrant-crime-trans-athletes/
That’s just awful.
Not good but I’d guess he’s just trying to buy favor (a stupid mistake) with the leftist nutjobs who’d love to string him up if they had the chance.
Whoops, ex-wife…nevermind.
“That’s just
awfulAWFL.”FIFY.
It is that, but really… is any of this crap any kind of legitimate field of study? Seems to me at most they just crunch a few numbers in order to make them fit into their pre-determined biases.
Why are colleges not embarrassed at tossing off this fraudulence as “research”?
The Churches of Higher Purpose will not be dissuaded from the purpose of making the New (Wo)Man in the image of St. Barak.
From the Original Progressives right down to now – the belief that they know what constitutes a better person and that they can create them through policy. The Obamessiah will be forgotten soon enough – when they have their next holy incarnation.
The people running those colleges are scared of being attacked.
Purim titties for Silicone Saturday.
https://archive.is/UkwM9
Appealing to purimient interests?
YOU! Go to box. Feel shame.
Okaaaaay.
I thought that was the after hours posts?
FWIW…hard to be 100% objective when talking about budget stuff. I’m applying for a bunch of short term active duty billets for FY25. Not certain whether this current budget will cover those since they’re forecast to start 1 Oct – or if they’re dependent on FY25 budget (which almost certainly won’t happen in a timely manner again)…may ping the office again next week.
Turns out when you calculate all my reserve time on top of my active time, I’ve got over 14 years already (20 calendar years in total service) – but if I go over 16 years of “active” service, DoD is obligated for my full retirement pay – vice not paying me till I turn 60. Didn’t find that out (time in service calculation) till I applied for a 3 year active duty billet in Japan – assuming my 10.5 years of actual active duty were the only calculations in effect. Currently looking at a couple 1 year billet options – and aiming to see if I can add a 6 month billet to that afterwards…
Oh well…
Or get a billet and get retained for a few more months…
Will Lara Croft be joining us on Zoom ever again?? 😂
Oh, I forgot about that. I started to pop in last night but I was soooooo tired. I was sleeping while the sky was still light.
I hear rumors that you have made an appearance, but I have yet to see any evidence with my own eyes 😉
(also my bday is Tuesday, so tonight will be birthday shots on Zoom)
Maybe? She hates the interruption style of conversation, and that’s our red meat there. Making dinner for her friends tonight, so this won’t be the time. Maybe next week if this survives dinner.
Are you the red meat on tonight’s menu?
Ahhhhh there is a name for that?
/hi-fives TR
WHAT! We’re super erudite and circumspect!
I think a smoking jacket and jaunty scarf are in order for tonight.
Ouch.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/love-sex/porn-star-breaks-penis-during-29280374
Todger?
“Mary went in for surgery this month after one of her 38J boob implants exploded and left her with a uniboob”
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/real-life/model-worlds-fattest-vagina-now-29265953
Don’t click on that.
“Don’t click”
Once I saw “world’s fattest vagina” I just had to.
I appreciate the warning. 😰
How about two in the back? Or I can combine these two into one fantastic superboob!
I wonder if you could rub your hair on those boobs and then use that static electricity to stick her on a wall?
“Ash Cooper, who was initially charged as Joshua Cooper but began transitioning after the arrest, admitted to the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Morgan Connors in Cooper’s family’s Bensalem, Pennsylvania trailer in November of 2022, the Daily Mail reports.”
https://thepostmillennial.com/trans-teen-sentenced-to-15-40-years-for-murder-of-12-year-old-best-friend-in-bucks-county-pa
That’s not all suspicious.
Seen a number of articles at NRO and elsewhere this week about Sanders idiotic calls for a 32 hr workweek. Some dumb comments re: retirement as well apparently…but this rebuttal is pretty good.
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/4549407-on-retirement-sanders-delivers-a-litany-of-misrepresentation/
“As chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has paid special attention to retirement security issues.
The self-declared democratic socialist has a certain reputation. You may not be where Sanders is politically, but you respect that he speaks the truth as he sees it without fear or favor. And yet, Sanders’s statements about retirement savings in the U.S., buttressed by a recent report released by his committee staff, are so inaccurate as to be irresponsible.
In a recent op-ed written for Fox News, Sanders made one of his favorite claims: “In America today, almost 45 percent of older Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 have no savings at all and no idea how they will be able to retire with any shred of dignity or respect.” Sanders attributes this figure to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which calculated it from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances. So it’s rock solid, right?
In fact, not at all. What Sanders calls “retirement savings” are only balances in retirement accounts such as IRAs and 401(k)s. But there are many other ways to save.
What about state and local government employees who have generous traditional pensions but may not be offered a retirement account? They’re without savings, Sanders says, despite having accrued $9.3 trillion in future pension benefits. This is indeed ironic, given that Sanders’ op-ed was released in conjunction with a committee hearing focused on expanding Americans’ access to traditional pensions, which Sanders’ oft-cited statistic does not consider to be “retirement savings”
And what about people who save for retirement outside of a formal retirement plan? Another Fed dataset, the Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking, asks specifically about these other sources of retirement savings.
Among 55 to 64-year-olds in 2022, 58 percent reported having retirement savings in an ordinary taxable investment or savings account, 14 percent owned real estate that would generate income in retirement and 19 percent owned a small business that could generate retirement income. In total, 90 percent of Americans aged 55 to 64 in 2022 told the Fed they had some form of retirement savings, dwarfing the 55 percent figure Sanders cites.
But it goes on, with Sanders’ claiming that Americans have “no idea how they will be able to retire with any shred of dignity or respect.” The Fed’s Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking sheds light on the claim as well.
Among households aged 65 in 2022, just 4 percent described their financial situation as “finding it hard to get by,” with another 13 percent “just getting by.” Eighty-two percent said they were “doing okay” or “living comfortably,” up from 62 percent when the survey began in 2013. Moreover, seniors report much higher financial security than younger Americans.
But it keeps going: according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Sanders says, the United States has “one of the highest rates of senior poverty compared to other wealthy nations.” Twenty-three percent of U.S. seniors live in poverty, Sanders claims.
That would be news to the U.S. Census Bureau, which in a 2023 analysis using IRS data found just 6.4 percent of U.S. seniors with income below the federal poverty threshold. The OECD figures Sanders cites are not measures of poverty as commonly understood but of inequality. The OECD sets the poverty threshold differently for each country, at anything less than half that country’s median disposable income. And yes, the U.S. has greater income inequality than most developed countries.
But the OECD finds that the typical U.S. senior has the second-highest disposable income in the world, trailing just the tax-haven city-state of Luxembourg. Our median senior’s income is 50 percent higher than Denmark, 29 percent above Germany and double that of Japan. Does it make sense that to avoid “poverty” a U.S. senior needs twice the real income of a Japanese retiree?
In reality, Census Bureau researchers have found dramatic reductions in elderly poverty even since 1990, with the share of seniors with sub-poverty level incomes falling from 9.7 percent in 1990 to just 6.4 percent in 2018.
Retirement is a serious topic for ordinary Americans trying to save enough and for federal policymakers thinking about how to fix Social Security and improve private-sector retirement plans. Americans deserve a serious analysis of the state of retirement income security. Sen. Bernie Sanders does not provide that. “
A pension isn’t retirement savings, any more than SocSec is. That’s an unfunded liability. It is a promise to pay in the future out of then current income.
Whyizzit that the words, “thin ice” occur to me?
I am reminded that 80% of American children suffer from hunger.
And obesity at the same time!
ULTRAPROCESSED FOODS!!!
WIC eligible
I was hungry most often when I was also at my fattest.
“Shaun King disinvited as CAIR Minnesota keynote speaker after Muslim community SLAMS him as a ‘grifter’ for ‘converting’ to Islam
Less than one day after converting, King announced a multi-city speaking tour with $1,000 VIP tickets.”
https://thepostmillennial.com/shaun-king-disinvited-as-cair-minnesota-keynote-speaker-after-muslim-community-slams-him-as-a-grifter-for-converting-to-islam
Who the hell would spend $1K to listen to Shaun King?
David Hogg.
That assumes David Hogg has $1,000, and would ever do something as base as spending his own money instead of getting someone else to pay for it.
Go big or go home
There are reams of research showing how the American response to 2020 allowed the COVID-19 to run rampant, leading to more severe disease and excess death than was necessary, particularly for a nation that was, as global health experts saw it, so well prepared. What we’ve yet to assess is the way Trump’s pandemic leadership damaged our already-fraying social fabric, and made the social experience of 2020 so durably catastrophic that it remains with us today.
——-
When Americans returned to the public realm after the first wave of shutdowns in 2020, they were full of ire and indignation, with each side of the polarized electorate convinced that the other was responsible for the country’s miserable condition. By late spring, fights over masks had turned a few square inches of fabric into a battleground for the soul of the nation, and routine encounters in public spaces were suddenly shot through with rage and tension. The gas station. The grocery store. Streets and sidewalks. All became hot spots for confrontation. No place was safe.
——-
There were, to be sure, points of disagreement and periodic protests about lockdowns and social restrictions. In time, journalists discovered that Morrison had used the crisis as occasion to seize unprecedented political power across federal agencies, and ultimately this overreach led to his fall from office. But while most nations struggled to contain lethal outbreaks, Australia registered roughly the same amount of mortality in 2020 that it does in typical years – had the U.S. held the death rate to the same level, roughly 900,000 lives would have been spared.
And that is why we must vote to re-elect Joe Biden. It’s quite a work of art in its entirety.
Remember, boys and girls, Donald Trump is an authoritarian who wants to control your every thought and deed.
the soul of the nation
I would bitchslap the author for that.
Obviously we have all kinds of legitimate issues with property taxes (having to provide proof of mileage to get a discount on my car tax is a pain) – but there’s a lot to be said about a very transparent tax and the “Chesterton’s fence” likelihood of worse replacements under the current regime. Thought this was pretty thoughtful.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/03/theres-nothing-conservative-about-repealing-the-property-tax/
“Property taxes generate 72 percent of local tax revenue. If governments can afford to cut taxes that deeply, surely there are more pro-growth places to cut.
A tax revolt is brewing, with homeowners and farmers in a half-dozen states and counting swinging behind sweeping proposals to eliminate local property taxes. A popular movement to repeal a major tax may sound like a conservative’s dream, but for free-market conservatives, this particular dream could easily turn out to be a nightmare.
Taxpayers tend to hate property taxes; economists and public-finance scholars tend to love them. This sort of thing is probably why economists don’t get invited to dinner very often. But here, we must grudgingly admit that they have a point.
It is axiomatic in taxation that whatever you tax, you get less of. If you tax income, you’ll get less of the things that produce income, namely labor and investment. If you tax capital assets, you’ll get fewer of them. If you tax “sin,” you’ll get — well, perhaps not less sin, but possibly different sins.
A good tax system should be economically efficient, meaning it raises the necessary revenue with the least economic impact. Policy-makers should avoid introducing unnecessary economic distortions, where the tax code picks winners and losers or induces individuals and businesses to make choices they would not have otherwise made absent the tax.
This is where the property tax shines, at least in comparison with most other ways to raise revenue. Because land and buildings are immobile assets, taxing real property has far less of an effect on economic decision-making than most alternative forms of taxation. Dollar-for-dollar, property taxes do considerably less harm to economic growth than most other taxes, especially income taxes and taxes on business investment.
They also hew closer than most major taxes to the “benefit test,” rooted in the idea that, where possible, taxes ought to correspond to services received. The gas tax is a good example of this, almost approximating a user fee if well-designed, with drivers paying in rough proportion to the cost of maintaining the roads they use. The property tax may not seem similar at first glance, but in fact, the value of one’s real property is a reasonably good proxy for the value of local services received, like roads, law enforcement, emergency services, and schools.
A good school district, for instance, increases your property’s value regardless of whether you have kids in that school. And if you privately contracted for insurance or security services, you’d pay more to secure a more valuable property. Local governments, unlike federal or state governments, do relatively little income redistribution. (A few major cities are exceptions. They tend not to be located in the states where property-tax abolition has a shot.) Most of their spending goes to public services that are proportionally more valuable based on the value of one’s property, and which, delivered well, increase a property’s value.
Is this correlation perfect? Of course not. But it’s way better than we find in most taxes. The services you receive from the government increase in value when you have more valuable property. Can you say the same about the services you receive as your income levels (and thus income-tax payments) rise?
Having praised the property tax, let’s acknowledge and address the aspects people tend to dislike.
First, that tax bill hits hard. Property taxes are unusually transparent: Most people know what they pay, and they don’t like it. You don’t have to like it; in fact, you shouldn’t. An engaged citizenry keeps the pressure on government officials to justify why they need as much revenue as they collect, and how they spend it. Transparency, therefore, is a good thing. You probably know your property-tax bill, and if you think it’s too high, you might attend a public meeting about it. Now, quick, tell me: How much did you pay in sales tax last year? How much did taxes on business reduce your salary or increase the prices you paid? Fiscal conservatives should want more taxes to be as transparent as the property tax, rather than focusing on getting rid of the tax that’s the most transparent.
Second, some people have an instinctive aversion to the idea that you can be taxed on something you own. For some, it’s hard to square ownership with the idea of a continuing tax obligation. This impulse isn’t unreasonable, but it’s a problem that bedevils almost every tax. You pay sales tax when you spend money you already possess, and on which you’ve already paid income tax. You pay income tax on the fruits of your own labor. You don’t have to like taxes — who does? — but short of deciding that taxes are theft and championing a stateless society, training fire on the property tax and forcing governments to raise more money from less pro-growth sources is a bit of an own goal for those who want to unleash the power of markets.
Third, homeowners are understandably alarmed by how sharply their property-tax bills have risen in recent years. Their anger is legitimate, and they’re right to seek solutions that rein in such increases, but replacing the property tax with something else — almost assuredly something worse — is misguided.
Assessed values have soared since the start of the pandemic, so if rates remain the same, homeowners pay substantially more than they used to on the same property, even though they’re probably not getting more or better government out of the deal. Fortunately, many jurisdictions have rolled back rates, but not always enough, and some localities have been happy to pocket the windfall. State lawmakers can provide meaningful relief by implementing levy limits, which restrict the amount that local collections can grow year over year (exempting new construction) by mandating rate rollbacks to keep tax burdens in check when valuations spike. Protecting homeowners against unlegislated and unjustified tax increases is prudent; shifting the tax burden to a more harmful tax is not.
Besides, for most homeowners, inflation is the real villain. National statistics can obscure local variations that matter a great deal to the property owner whose county commissioners are gleefully taking the windfall without budging tax rates one iota (and that’s what levy limits are for), but nationally, property-tax collections were 5.5 percent lower in real terms in 2022 than they were in 2019, despite housing values soaring 33.6 percent and additional properties being added to the mix. People are paying a lot more — the median tax bill skyrocketed from $2,546 to $2,912 — but, nationally, the entire increase (and then some) is inflation. That’s an indictment of federal fiscal policy far more than it is of local property taxes.
Should free-market conservatives love the property tax? Not really. A certain amount of tax skepticism is healthy. It encourages taxpayers to care about competitive tax rates and keep tabs on how their tax dollars are being spent.
But should they hate it to the point of seeking its abolition, as direct-democracy efforts in Nebraska, North Dakota, Florida, and elsewhere would do? Given the alternatives, property-tax abolition is a bad bargain, and it’s often propped up by unrealistic promises.
In Nebraska, for instance, proponents of a measure called the EPIC Option argue that all existing income, sales, and property taxes could be replaced with one broad-based consumption tax of 7.5 percent. The actual revenue-neutral rate would be closer to 22 percent. Such wishful thinking about the ease of replacing the property tax appears to be a hallmark of these citizen efforts.
Property taxes generate 72 percent of local tax revenue. If governments can afford to cut taxes that deeply, surely there are more pro-growth places to cut. And if, as is usually the case, the solution is to increase some other (typically state-level) tax, conservatives should be the ones asking the tough questions.
Questions such as: Will this tax do more economic damage than the tax it replaces? And what sort of incentives are we creating if state government becomes the primary financer of local-government spending?
Fiscal conservatism is, let’s face it, a bit boring by design. It’s the embodiment of the stodgy accountant crunching the numbers and asking whether governments really need to buy the latest shiny toy. Because, if you’re conservative, you want government to be boring, to leave room for private enterprise to be dynamic. And here too, fiscal conservatism calls for a dull steadiness: sticking with what works, not chasing after shiny objects; preferring reform to revolution; and not letting frustration with property taxes lead to the embrace of something far worse.”
(author: Jared Walczak is Vice President of State Projects at the Tax Foundation and a columnist for Tax Notes State magazine. He is the lead researcher on the annual State Business Tax Climate Index and Location Matters, and has authored or coauthored tax-reform guides for more than a dozen states. He previously served as legislative director to a member of the Virginia senate, as policy director for a statewide campaign, and consulted on research and policy development for a number of candidates and elected officials.)
Sorry about lousy editing – I haven’t gotten monocle to work on my new laptop yet and I can’t remember all the tags.
They also hew closer than most major taxes to the “benefit test,” rooted in the idea that, where possible, taxes ought to correspond to services received.
Bullllllll-shiiiit. The school-tax on my property is ridiculous and I have never put my child through the local schools. If the local schools produced a stellar output, then maybe I could choke down a little, but the schools are spectacularly mediocre. And the local properties with mobile homes, and crotch-fruit, don’t pay anywhere near what I do. I am subsidizing the fuck out of them, and you might gather I resent that just a little.
the necessary revenue
Fuck you, cut spending.
Real estate property tax is bad enough. Personal property tax is downright evil.
Perhaps the most important reason for Americans to think back to how things were four – and not five – years ago, is that crises, at this volatile moment, are to be expected. The next president will be responsible for managing the situation in Israel and Gaza, as well as threats of an expanding war in the Middle East or beyond. There’s Russia and Ukraine, China and Taiwan, North Korea, and Iran. There’s the ever-present threat of heat waves, hurricanes, and torrential rain events on a climate-changed planet. The markets are hotter than ever, and we haven’t seen the last new virus, either.
It may be comforting to believe that 2020 was a black swan, the kind of year we’re unlikely to see again in our lifetime. More likely, it was a canary in the coal mine, an early warning that we’ve entered the age of extremes. Our political leaders should be equipped for the challenge.
Vote for Joe. He’s the god-king we need.
Hey-O. News from IN before out with family:
“A new Indiana law allows universities to revoke a professor’s tenure if they don’t promote so-called “intellectual diversity” in the classroom. Supporters of the measure say it will make universities more accepting of conservative students and academics. But many professors worry the law could put their careers in jeopardy for what they say, or don’t say, in the classroom.
“I’d say it ends tenure in the state of Indiana as we know it,” said Ben Robinson, associate professor of Germanic Studies at Indiana University.”
—
“Republican state Sen. Spencer Deery, a former chief of staff for the Purdue University president and the bill’s sponsor, said the new law would help conservative students feel more comfortable expressing their opinions on campus”…”The American public and Hoosiers as well are losing faith and trust in higher education,” Deery said. “One of the strong reasons for that is, frankly, higher education hasn’t done a great job. of making every viewpoint feel welcome.”‘
Evan strongly approves of this measure. I know the Lt. Gov. and talk to her daughter every night. Hrm-cicle on a couple fronts…
https://www.npr.org/2024/03/22/1239534856/new-indiana-law-requires-professors-to-promote-intellectual-diversity-to-keep-te#:~:text=A%20new%20Indiana%20law%20allows,of%20conservative%20students%20and%20academics
The tenure system should go away. It is, like much of the modern university system, is welfare for the credentialed and is not a very good system if the purpose of the university is education and inquiry. Piling on easily skirted rules that can, and will, be gamed is not the solution to the problem of universities. But since tenure is not going away – to many entrenched beneficiaries vs dispersed/difficult to quantify costs – I guess we’ll see a lot of the sort of tinkering that will do nothing to solve the problem.
Expected music link:
https://youtu.be/QEJ9HrZq7Ro
Is it weird if you yell “Mummy” while having your tomb raided?
Rules were made to be re-written
The Biden administration on Friday released new rules that will make it easier for offshore wind developers to claim a subsidy for facilities planned in areas that have historically relied on fossil fuel industries for employment.
The revision follows nearly a year of warnings by offshore wind companies that their projects might not move forward without access to certain subsidies in President Joe Biden’s landmark climate change law, the Inflation Reduction Act.
Promise them anything, Joe. It’s not like anybody is going to stop you.
The link, it was SF‘ed.
There is no tricknology that can deal with the corner of stupidity they’ve written themselves into.
The offshore companies are already demanding two- and three-times greater payback, and that’s before any of it is up and running (which it never will be).
This is Joe desperate trying to prop up his lefty bona fides for… I dunno, his next job?
His next job is pushing up daisies, I think that’s why he’s clinging so bitterly to this one.
Friendly advice
Donald Trump’s social media company could go public as soon as next week, paving the way for a potentially huge windfall for a former president who raked in tens of millions of dollars the last time one of his companies was listed on a stock exchange.
That previous, decades-ago experience, however, did not end well for the company or its investors. While a 2016 Washington Post review found that Trump made over $44 million, the company — Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts — lost more than $1 billion and ended up in bankruptcy.
Obviously, this is is a bad investment, because it would put money in Trump’s pocket. We cannot allow that. Didn’t the state of New York ban him from involvement with any business enterprise in the state? Why can’t Letitia James arrest everybody involved with this?
Why doesn’t she use that adultery law against Trump?
Making money like bandits while the company crashes? Like pretty much every NYSE/NASDAQ/F500 company that’s gone belly up?
From the dead thred, William Shatner is a national treasure on both sides of the border. Still, not a fan of the Shatner billboards. He’s not really an explorer, dumbasses.
Appreciate the thought exercise and argument, but this one pushes my buttons. Wish I had time this morning to respond thoughtfully instead of what’s going to sound too abrupt:
– Materialistic/utilitarian arguments on taxation don’t move me. My brain works more with moral arguments. I can be convinced that a sovereign can levy Eva tax when something crosses his border. I can be convinced of a poll tax. That’s basically it. It’s just as much theft as any other confiscation of income.
– Benefits (school as example) don’t accrue to payers proportionally.
– Even if we were working with “well, it’s here so what’s the best way to do it?”, assessment based on somebody’s made-up “value” of property is plain bullshit. We all know there’s no such thing as objective “value” of an item – it’s worth whatever somebody else is willing to pay for it at a particular point it time, and that’s it. I could go on but you get it.
I’m thankfully not paying based on ‘current value’ of my home, but pretty much based on the purchase price. Still bad enough, but it will be worse for the person who buys this from me.
We’d like to move but we’d get hosed from the tax reset.
I wish I could convince my wife to build down in VA – we could have a brand new house AND lower taxes.
Reminds me of this one too: https://twitchy.com/dougp/2024/03/22/bidens-proposal-for-homeowners-looking-for-a-new-place-helps-explain-massive-govt-debt-n2394285
” For homeowners looking for a new place but worried about giving up their lower mortgage rate, I’m proposing a $10,000 tax credit if they sell their starter homes.
That means more folks can get into houses that suit their needs, unlocking affordable homes for first-time buyers.
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 21, 2024″
In answer to Rhywun, colonel in chief is a ceremonial head of (British) army regiment. During the amalgamations of the 90’s one such combination created was the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment with the then current Princess as colonel-in-chief. Queen Margarethe had been the longtime colonel-in-chief of a predecessor regiment (and longtime tradition of Danish c-in-c’s) so continued as co-colonels in chief until the hussy divorced and gave up her position leaving Margarethe as the sole c-in-c until she abdicated earlier this year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_of_Wales%27s_Royal_Regiment
PWRR is dear to my heart as it’s my regimental affiliation.
Thanks. It all sounds made-up to me – I’ve literally never heard of any of it.
It’s all made up and fun, like a fancy dress party.
https://www.regimentalshop.com/collections/princess-of-wales-royal-regiment
Wear your regimental tie with blazer (with sewn badge) to the club. Pip pip cheerio and all that.
Lemme guess, Harris is promoting more point of sale gun restrictions and no additional point of use punishments. Dems need to be mercilessly called out for not wanting criminals to face repercussions, but to make it harder for law abiding citizens. It seems like that is a good part of their party belief system these days. Why do I need to go through customs when I come back to the US from abroad?
On that note I had a pretty long discussion with an illegal immigrant this week. He came from Chiapas about 7 years ago. I asked him how much he had to pay the cartels to be allowed to cross. 5k then, and he said that has risen to 8k now. I asked if there was any crossing done without paying that fee, and he was doubtful. It would be possible but highly dangerous not to pay the fee. It has become a nice little side business for the cartels, along with shaking down legitimate businesses for protection money.
You would think she’d be arguing for throwing Hunter Biden in prison for his illegal purchase (perjuring himself on the 4473). As an example at the least.
Imagine if we had a press that would actually ask her that question.
How do these supposedly poverty stricken Hondurans and others, seeking opportunity in America, save that kind of money to pay the cartels?
Entire families and villages save up to pay the cost, and that then gets returned to them with interest by remittances that are sent back once the person starts working here. The fact that is doesn’t get called out every day is disgusting and ridiculous. I don’t think this information is at all surprising to Glibs, but how many Americans are aware of the fact that almost all of those millions of illegal immigrants are each paying the cartels thousands of dollars. It gets very little mention in the mainstream media.
Some of it is savings, sent by relatives, etc. I suspect much of it now is NGO’s.
Maybe they just think your cars suck
After four consecutive years of sales growth, sales of ultra-expensive Bentley cars and SUVs were down 11% last year.
Bentley chief executive Adrian Hallmark, in a presentation to reporters, blamed “a level of emotional sensitivity” among the brand’s wealthy clientele. In particular, Bentley buyers were sensitive about high interest rates, a Bentley spokesperson explained later.
Interest rates? People who buy Bentleys don’t care about interest rates. Maybe the cars are just overweight, overcomplicated, overpriced pigs.
What is market saturation, Alex?
I blame the government.
Thirty percent of customers leased Bentleys last year, a figure that was “up significantly” compared to 2022, the spokesperson explained. This indicates that even rich buyers were sensitive to monthly payments on a purchased car.
Or maybe people have smartened up to the ruinous depreciation on those shitboxes.
Rappers hardest hit.
“The Week in Pictures: Bloodbath Edition
Has there ever been a greater example of media malpractice and malevolence than the way Trump’s mention of a “bloodbath” for the auto industry under Biden (analysis: completely true!) was turned into some kind of MAGA Kristallnacht? I suspect Joe Biden’s new clown shoes are an ironic tribute to this in-kind campaign contribution.”
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/03/the-week-in-pictures-bloodbath-edition.php
Yes. The “there were good people on both sides” bullshit was at least this bad if not worse. Actually it was worse as it completely became the accepted narrative. When it started to get promulgated in the media I had to go back to the source and find the actual quote in context. It was at a presser for something completely different (I think it was some kind of transportation initiative if I remember correctly) and it became highly chaotic with reporters firing all kinds of questions at Trump about Charlottesville as soon as they could. What a contrast to the utterly staged Biden events, nothing like this would happen now. Needless to say, Trump was not at all referring to “Nazis” when he said that, but to people who were not happy with the removal of Confederate statues.
Anyone could read the transcript or watch the video.
What do you think the percentage of Americans who have read a transcript or seen the video in context? What do you think the percentage of Americans who have heard “there were good people on both sides” followed by a talking head or news article saying Trump loves Nazis?
“I can see Russia from my house.”
–SNL, attributes to Palin
Heheh, yup that one too.
people who were not happy with the removal of Confederate statues
By lefty definition, those are Nazis.
More inflation reduction
The new Environmental Protection Agency rules released Wednesday aim to cut tailpipe emissions by 49% between model years 2027 and 2032. The EPA set a target for EVs to make up at least 35% of new vehicle sales by 2032.
The standards are less ambitious than proposed rules released last year, which targeted a 56% reduction in emissions by 2032 and called for EVs to represent 67% of new vehicles by that year.
——-
The EPA’s percentage targets for EV adoption are not mandates but expectations for how automakers could meet the emissions regulations. The target range for the share of EV sales in the market in 2032 is between 35% and 56%.
They could stop selling vehicles entirely. That would really slash emissions.
They talk about cutting emissions by half without ever bothering to mention the infinitesimal real marginal gain that represents.
How do these supposedly poverty stricken Hondurans and others, seeking opportunity in America, save that kind of money to pay the cartels?
I have been wondering about that for a very long time.
Remittances are close to 5% of the GDP of Mexico. I imagine that it is much higher for Central American countries.
Had to look it up, wow, 24.5% of the GDP of Honduras is from remittances. They are getting a good return on investment.